Round Lab Sunscreen Korean Version vs American Version: 622 Reviews

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Review-analysis guide: 1,977 customer reviews read on Ulta and Sephora (November 6, 2026), sorted and counted by us; product details from the brands' US pages, Sephora and Ulta listings and the FDA labels checked November 6, 2026.

By The Beauty Read · Checked November 6, 2026 · AI-assisted research and editing · Contains Amazon affiliate links

Round Lab's US tube is not the Korean cream, and its own Ulta page shows it. Of 622 reviews, the 359 usable ones written before the US formula gave one or two stars 1% of the time; the 246 since give 17%, and 22% say it is not the sunscreen they knew. That is the round lab sunscreen korean version vs american version answer; Day Dew (32% low ratings) and innisfree (16%) follow.

Round lab sunscreen korean version vs american version: what 622 Ulta reviews show

Ulta's page for Round Lab's Birch Juice Moisturizing UVLOCK SPF 45 (paid link) shows 622 reviews under one average. 582 of them are copies from Round Lab's own site, and 368 of those were written before September 18, 2024, the day the US version was first marketed according to its FDA label. That one number is most of the round lab sunscreen korean version vs american version story, so we read all 622 and split them at that date. [8] [1]

Before the switch, the sunscreen people were reviewing was the Korean cream. Its 359 usable reviews gave five stars 93% of the time and one or two stars 1% (4 of 359). 43% called it lightweight, 35% said it left no white cast, 35% called it hydrating and 28% said they had bought it again. Greasy came up in 1% of reviews and a sunscreen smell in 1. [8]

After the switch, the 246 usable reviews read like a different product, because they are. Five stars fell to 64% and one or two stars rose to 17% (42 of 246). Greasy, shiny or heavy came up in 18%, a sunscreen or chemical smell in 8%, and 53 reviewers (22%) said outright that this is not the sunscreen they knew, most often naming the texture or the smell. 30 of those 53 gave one or two stars, and 29 also called it greasy.

The complaint dipped and came back. It appeared in 18 of the 57 US-era reviews from late 2024 (32%), 15 of 66 in the first half of 2025, 7 of 67 in the second half and 13 of the 56 written in 2026 (23%). The 39 usable reviews written on Ulta itself were harsher than the brand-site copies: 16 of 39 gave one or two stars (41%) and 14 missed the Korean formula, against 13% and 39 of 207 for the copies.

Round lab sunscreen korean version vs american version on the label: why the US tube changed

Two labels explain it. The Korean Birch Juice Moisturizing Sunscreen SPF 50+ PA++++ lists diethylamino hydroxybenzoyl hexyl benzoate, ethylhexyl triazone, methylene bis-benzotriazolyl tetramethylbutylphenol and diethylhexyl butamido triazone as its UV filters, four newer filters common in Korean and European sunscreens. The US tube, under the FDA Drug Facts format, lists avobenzone 2.7%, homosalate 13.5% and octisalate 4.5% as its actives, carries SPF 45 instead of 50+ and makes no water-resistance claim. [2] [1]

In the United States, sunscreens are regulated as nonprescription drugs, and the FDA's page on sunscreen lists the active ingredients a product may use. The four Korean filters are not on it. Bemotrizinol was added in June 2026 and aminobenzoic acid was removed in September, and neither change touches these three products, because none of the Korean lists above uses bemotrizinol. So a brand that wants to sell on Ulta or Sephora rebuilds the formula around avobenzone, homosalate and octisalate, and sometimes octocrylene, which is what all three brands here did. [7]

Whether one filter set protects better than the other is not something customer reviews can answer, and we have no test of our own; the brands' lab SPF numbers are brand-cited. What the reviews measure is feel, and that is where the korean sunscreen vs american sunscreen gap on Round Lab's page sits: lightweight praise fell from 43% to 24% across the switch and hydration praise from 35% to 17%. Birch juice, the ingredient in the name, sits 21st on the US label. [8] [1]

Beauty of Joseon Day Dew vs Relief Sun: what changed, and what 282 Sephora reviews say

Beauty of Joseon took a different route and gave the US sunscreen a different name. Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics SPF 50+ PA++++ is the Korean one, with 30% rice extract as its second ingredient and the same four filters as the Korean Round Lab cream. Day Dew Sunscreen SPF 50 is the US one, sold at Sephora and on the brand's US site, with avobenzone 3%, homosalate 7%, octisalate 5% and octocrylene 5%, rice extract 18th of 20 ingredients, no fragrance and an 80-minute water-resistance claim the brand backs with a named US lab study. [4] [3]

This beauty of joseon day dew review rests on 282 usable Sephora reviews out of 616 cards. 232 cards carried the Incentivized badge, and five months in which more than half the reviews were Incentivized came out whole, 276 cards, organic reviews included. Of what remains, 90 gave one or two stars (32%), the highest share of the three sunscreens, rising from 25% of the 99 usable 2025 reviews to 36% of the 183 from 2026. [9]

31% liked the finish, 26% saw no white cast, 24% called it lightweight and 18% had bought it more than once, yet 32% gave it one or two stars. 17% called it greasy or shiny, 9% said it stung or irritated their skin, 7% said it stung their eyes, 10% tied breakouts to it, 6% disliked the smell of a fragrance-free formula, and 6% had a packaging complaint (a tube tip or cap that broke, a leak, little product or a short expiry date).

On the beauty of joseon sunscreen korean vs american formula question, 33 reviewers (12%) wrote that Day Dew is not Relief Sun, most of them disappointed, 25 with one or two stars and 18 calling the US version greasier. Another 22 named another sunscreen without saying Day Dew is not the Korean one. The 93 organic reviews inside the set-aside months were not kinder, with 30 low ratings and 22 missing the Korean one, so the sampling months did not hide a better product.

innisfree sunscreen vs Beauty of Joseon, with a US formula from the start

innisfree's Daily UV Defense Sunscreen SPF 50+ PA++++, which Sephora lists as the Daily UV Invisible Korean Sunscreen Lotion, is a different case. Its actives are avobenzone 2.5%, homosalate 7% and octisalate 4.3%, the same three at the same percentages as the older US SPF 36 lotion it replaced, and the brand calls it a new and improved version of that lotion, not of a Korean import. It contains fragrance, limonene and linalool, comes in 25, 50 and 100 ml, and makes no water-resistance claim. [5] [6]

That history shows in the reviews. Only 3 of 110 usable reviewers (3%) said the formula had changed on them, against 22% for Round Lab and 12% for Day Dew. In the innisfree sunscreen vs beauty of joseon comparison, innisfree drew more no-white-cast praise (42% against 26%), more under-makeup praise (27% against 16%) and about the same share of repurchases (20% against 18%), with fewer greasy (9% against 17%) and stinging (13% against 16%) reports and the same breakout share (10%). [10] [9]

Its sample is the problem. The Sephora page started with 739 cards, of which 544 carried the Incentivized or Sephora Employee badge, and four months in which free reviews outnumbered the rest came out whole, 599 cards. The 110 that remain were written from April 2026 to November 2026, and one review moves a share by about one point. 16% gave one or two stars, 5% said it pilled and 4 disliked the smell.

Is Beauty of Joseon sunscreen good for oily acne prone skin? What skin types reported

Reviewers who named their skin type are a minority, so these are small groups. Among Day Dew's 90 combination-skin reviewers, 32 liked the finish, 22 called it greasy, 10 said it stung and 10 tied breakouts to it. Of its 23 oily-skinned reviewers, 8 called it greasy. Only 5 said they were acne-prone, and 4 of those reported no breakouts. [9]

So is beauty of joseon sunscreen good for oily acne prone skin? The reviews say it depends on which trouble you fear more, since 10% of all usable reviewers tied breakouts to Day Dew, the joint-highest share here, while 7% said it did not break them out. Round Lab's page holds the larger groups for a korean sunscreen for oily acne prone skin search, mostly from the Korean era: 26 oily-skinned reviewers (6 reported no breakouts, 2 breakouts, 2 greasy), 24 acne-prone (19 of them Korean-era; 15 no breakouts, 3 breakouts) and 41 sensitive-skinned, 23 of whom called it gentle. [8]

White cast is where the US versions hold up. 4 of the 5 US-era Round Lab reviewers who described deep or medium-deep skin saw no cast (13 of 14 in the Korean era), as did 4 of 5 on Day Dew and all 4 on innisfree, groups too small to lean on but pointing the same way. innisfree's 20 sensitive-skinned reviewers split 9 no breakouts and 7 gentle against 3 stinging.

Round Lab sunscreen vs Beauty of Joseon vs innisfree, and how each US version feels

The ranking flips with the complaint. Round Lab's US version leads on missing the Korean formula (22% against 12% and 3%) and sits level with Day Dew on greasy (18% and 17%, innisfree 9%); Day Dew leads on stinging (16%, innisfree 13%, Round Lab 7%) and on one- and two-star ratings (32% against 17% and 16%); Day Dew and innisfree tie on breakouts (10%, Round Lab 2%). On the round lab sunscreen vs beauty of joseon question, then, Round Lab's reviewers were angrier about the change and Day Dew's about their skin, and neither drew innisfree's no-cast praise. Comparisons with another sunscreen were most common on Round Lab's US-era page (28%), because so many reviewers were measuring the new tube against the old one. [8] [9] [10]

Our take: buy the US Round Lab UVLOCK only if you have never used the Korean cream and want an SPF 45 with birch juice and niacinamide on the label; reviewers who missed the Korean formula were the unhappiest group on each page (57% of them gave one or two stars on Round Lab's US-era page, 76% on Day Dew's). Choose Day Dew for the water-resistance claim if your skin does not sting easily, and patch-test it first. Choose innisfree for a no-cast daily lotion if fragrance does not bother you, and know that its record is 110 reviews deep. If you want the Korean versions, they are still sold as Relief Sun and as the Birch Juice Moisturizing Sunscreen through importers, which we did not review.

What we set aside, and how to read a Korean brand's US review page

Of the 1,977 cards we read, 875 sat in months where more than half the reviews on that page were marked Incentivized, and we set those months aside whole, organic reviews included (276 on the Day Dew page, 599 on the innisfree page). Another 83 outside those months carried the Incentivized or Staff badge or said the tube was free, and 22 were repeats, empty, about another product, not yet used or about shipping. That left 997. [8] [9] [10]

Round Lab's Ulta page is the one to read with care. Its 622 reviews include 582 copied from the brand's own site, 368 of them dated before the US version was marketed, and only 40 written on Ulta itself (39 usable). A shopper who reads the page's average is mostly reading reviews of a product the tube no longer contains. We split the page at the FDA marketing-start date rather than guessing from the text, and reviewers who clearly described using the Korean version on the US page were set aside as being about another product. [8] [1]

Day Dew's page had 232 Incentivized cards and, on October 28, 2025 alone, 27 reviews, many from buyers of a paid subscription box; we kept those because the box was paid for. innisfree's page is 74% badged reviews. Neither retailer hides the badges, but neither excludes them from the headline rating. [9] [10]

Our Amazon links for the Round Lab UVLOCK and the innisfree Daily UV Defense (paid link) open listings we found through search results on November 6, 2026; Amazon's own pages would not load for us that day, so we could not read who sells them, and each card says so. Day Dew has no Amazon link because we found no Beauty of Joseon listing for it; the brand sells it at Sephora and on its own site. Every product detail here comes from the brand, Sephora and Ulta pages and the FDA label, not from Amazon.

Keep reading

• Tinted sunscreen: Clarins UV Plus had the lowest one- and two-star share, 12% of 895 usable Ulta reviews
• Mineral sunscreen: Supergoop Mineral Mattescreen drew matte praise from 38% of 300 usable reviews
• Face sunscreen: Supergoop Glowscreen had the most glow reports in 544 Sephora reviews, 37%

Frequently asked questions

Round lab sunscreen korean version vs american version: which one did reviewers prefer?

The Korean one, by a wide margin, on Round Lab's own Ulta page. The 359 usable reviews dated before the US version was marketed (September 18, 2024) gave one or two stars 1% of the time and called it greasy 1% of the time. The 246 written since gave one or two stars 17% of the time, called it greasy 18% of the time, and 22% said it is not the sunscreen they knew.

Beauty of Joseon Day Dew vs Relief Sun: what actually changed?

The filters, the name and the rice. Relief Sun lists 30% rice extract second and four Korean UV filters; Day Dew lists avobenzone, homosalate, octisalate and octocrylene as actives, rice extract 18th of 20 ingredients, and adds an 80-minute water-resistance claim. In 282 usable Sephora reviews, 33 (12%) said Day Dew is not Relief Sun, 25 of them with one or two stars, and 31% liked the finish anyway.

Is Beauty of Joseon sunscreen good for oily acne prone skin?

The reviews are split. Across 282 usable Day Dew reviews, 10% tied breakouts to it and 7% said it did not break them out; 17% called it greasy or shiny. Among the 23 reviewers who said they had oily skin, 8 called it greasy and 5 praised no white cast. Only 5 said they were acne-prone, too few to judge, so patch-test rather than trust the average.

Why are Korean sunscreens different in the US?

Because US sunscreens are regulated as nonprescription drugs and may only use the active ingredients on the FDA's list. The four filters in the Korean Round Lab and Relief Sun formulas are not on it, so the US versions were rebuilt on avobenzone, homosalate and octisalate, with octocrylene in Day Dew. Reviews cannot say which set protects better; they can say the US Round Lab drew greasy complaints from 18% against 1% for the Korean era.

Does the innisfree Daily UV Invisible sunscreen leave a white cast?

Rarely, by the reviews. In 110 usable Sephora reviews, 42% praised no white cast and 1 reported one, with all 4 reviewers who described deep skin on the no-cast side. The sample is thin, because 544 of 739 cards were Incentivized or staff reviews and four sampling months were set aside. It contains fragrance; 4 reviewers complained about the smell and 5% said it pilled.